1965 · Album
For Bird and Bags
Recorded 1965 · Exodus (original release); later Vee-Jay master; released as Sculpture on Buddah in 1969
Harris Reaches for the Upper Air
Eddie Harris commanding the extreme upper register with a sound immediately recognizable and entirely his own.
For Bird and Bags puts you in a tight room with a tenor saxophonist who refuses to stay in the middle of the horn. Eddie Harris reaches upward constantly, working the altissimo register with the kind of control that makes it sound effortless rather than showy. Melvin Jackson anchors the trio on bass while Marshall Thompson keeps time on drums, and the three of them move through these pieces with the ease of players who know exactly what they're after. Harris isn't trying to honk or prove anything — he's simply playing the saxophone across its full range and making every register sound natural.
This is a straightforward hard bop session from the mid-1960s, the kind of blowing date that was common currency in jazz at the time. What distinguishes it is Harris's distinctive tone and his comfort at the top of the instrument, where many players either avoid going or sound strained when they do. He's in excellent form throughout, alternating between earthy lower lines and those piercing upper-register runs that became his signature. The rhythm section stays lean and supportive, never overdoing it, letting Harris set the pace.
The album's release history is tangled — recorded for Vee-Jay but released on Exodus after Vee-Jay's financial collapse — but the music itself is clean and uncluttered. This isn't Harris at his most experimental; that would come later. For Bird and Bags is simply a skilled saxophonist with a recognizable sound doing the work he knew how to do, session after session, with no apology and no pretense.
Who's playing
